No GuidePlus Service after December

Phazers

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According to the EPG on my Philips DVDR7250H Freeview PVR there are changes afoot with GuidePlus as of 1st January 2011. The service will no longer be available on analogue ITV1 and they suggest using the Freeview EPG.

Problem is that this device only has the Guide Plus EPG and not the Freeview one. Therefore after 31-12-2010 I have a device which can record programs manually.

It seems a number of devices are affected and not just Philips. There is the option to choose which tuner to use as the host channel but you can only choose the analogue tuner.
:mad:
 
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This is what happened to the 4TV provided 14 day EPG used by DigiFusion, Inverto and some Sony PVRs (and possibly others). It discontinued with very little notice. My two DigiFusions were left with manual programming only for recording. There was quite a fight from the DigiFusion community to try and get the service restored in some way, but no joy. The software was never going to be updated to use the Freeview EPG as an alternative either. Sounds like you are now too in the same boat.

After much dithering and putting up with manual recordings, finally plumped for a DigitalStream 500GB PVR from John Lewis. Great bit of kit.
 
Hmmm is this why my Pioneer 530H will not now download the Guideplus EPG. I notiched the other day that it was warning me the listings were not updated and after doing a hard reset the EPG was just blank. I've just done another hard reset to see if it helps but quite frankly this is all very worrying..what if I don't want to buy another recorder..I am more than happy with the way it worked before.

Anyone else with a 530 experiencing this?
 
...what if I don't want to buy another recorder..I am more than happy with the way it worked before.
Anyone else with a 530 experiencing this?

Exactly - I think a lot of people have been stiffed by this Digital Switch Over.
 
Hmmm is this why my Pioneer 530H will not now download the Guideplus EPG. I notiched the other day that it was warning me the listings were not updated and after doing a hard reset the EPG was just blank. I've just done another hard reset to see if it helps but quite frankly this is all very worrying..what if I don't want to buy another recorder..I am more than happy with the way it worked before.

Anyone else with a 530 experiencing this?
My wife mainly uses our Pioneer 530H and is complaining bitterly about the lack of channel information. I looked at the display around 4 am this morning and the EPG message showed on the display, but no channel information appeared on the guide. She has gone back to Video+ to set recordings, but then no program name is displayed.
I've been looking at the HD Freeview boxes, but they all seem to have faults to some degree or other - hopefully they'll get better and cheaper.
 
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My wife mainly uses our Pioneer 530H and is complaining bitterly about the lack of channel information. I looked at the display around 4 am this morning and the EPG message showed on the display, but no channel information appeared on the guide. She has gone back to Video+ to set recordings, but then no program name is displayed.

Hiya

The EPG message does appear but after a few minutes it disapears. They have switched it off without warning which is more annoying as I've had to go out and spend another load of money on a Humax.
 
The GuidePlus is now no longer functioning on our Philips box. We were discussing options this afternoon. Had to buy a TV guide to find out what is on. A good job I paid less then half retail price for this piece of shiny Philips hardware otherwise I'd be really hacked off.
 
Well if the £300 price tag doesn't put you off..the Humax is quite stunning
 
Well if thehings £300 price tag doesn't put you off..the Humax is quite stunning

I'm thinking of using one of those Scart plug Freeview things just to get the EPG as I can choose to receive the GuidePlus signal from an external box (actually what Philip's suggested).

Edit: See below this is not a valid option
 
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I'm thinking of using one of those Scart plug Freeview things just to get the EPG as I can choose to receive the GuidePlus signal from an external box (actually what Philip's suggested).
You can apparently then get the EPG from BidTV according to the Guide Plus+ site. But if the service terminates on 1st January 2011 as stated on the site, will the Freeview EPG populate our Pioneer succesfully to allow recording as before? Even if it does, our region will be digital only shortly after. I'm going to wait and see how it goes with the HDFreeview boxes - we have a Humax Freesat HDR anyway, so I will have to share it with my better half (who'll fill it up very quickly).
Since I have recorded satellite TV on my PC in the study plus a Technomate satellite receiver with USB recording and a separate screen, I don't mind my wife taking over the Humax. Being able to record 5 programs simultaneously is probably a little excessive, so we could lose the Pioneer - but it has been totally reliable and accurate, and allowed me to transfer our old VHS tapes to DVD.
 
I understood that the GuidePlus service will continue after 1st January but only on Digital (BidTV) and will stop on analogue ITV1
 
Hi

I understood that the GuidePlus service will continue after 1st January but only on Digital (BidTV) and will stop on analogue ITV1

The Bid Up TV digital service will not work via a separate Freeview box or dongle, it has to be a new type of recorder with a built-in Freeview tuner, as the data is transferred within the Freeview transmission, not as Teletext data in the picture itself, so it doesn't pass over a SCART connection.

A lot of recorders even with built-in Freeview will not be able to get the GuidePlus+ data via Freeview as they don't haven the necessary hardware/software to do this.

See this list of recorders which even having a Freeview tuner built in will not work GUIDE Plus+ / About Us

Regards

Phil
 
Hi



The Bid Up TV digital service will not work via a separate Freeview box or dongle, it has to be a new type of recorder with a built-in Freeview tuner, as the data is transferred within the Freeview transmission, not as Teletext data in the picture itself, so it doesn't pass over a SCART connection.

A lot of recorders even with built-in Freeview will not be able to get the GuidePlus+ data via Freeview as they don't haven the necessary hardware/software to do this.

See this list of recorders which even having a Freeview tuner built in will not work GUIDE Plus+ / About Us

Regards

Phil

Phil

Why do you think/know that it won't work? This is exactly what Philip's have told me to do (mind you I'm not sure they know !). People are already using my device to receive EPG through the Scart from a Sky box. However it will be pointless me trying if it has no chance of working.

Thanks

Edit: I have read your posts on other forums and now understand that this won't work.
 
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I was told by Pioneer that I could probably get the Guideplus+ using a Sky box, they did not give me any other options. The 530h does not come with Freeview built in so I was using an external Sony Freeview receiver. I don't know why Sky is different than Freeview..surely the signals cannot be transferred by Scart no matter what the source?
 
I was told by Pioneer that I could probably get the Guideplus+ using a Sky box, they did not give me any other options. The 530h does not come with Freeview built in so I was using an external Sony Freeview receiver. I don't know why Sky is different than Freeview..surely the signals cannot be transferred by Scart no matter what the source?
My interpretation of the Guide Plus + website advice was that someone could use either a Sky box to receive a digital signal on Eurosport, or a set top box tuned to BidTV to receive the EPG information. The digital signal would be converted to analogue and transmitted to the TV or to a recorder with an analogue tuner to populate the EPG, albeit with the freeview rather than analogue EPG. My Pioneer 530h has a setting to receive the signal from an external receiver. Recordings then made on the recorder would then pick up the program name, channel etc.(although I don't understand how the channels would match up). I assumed then that I would have revert to the normal connections to receive analogue signals directly, otherwise the set top box has to be programmed to match the recorder timings? From Phil's post above, the set top box approach doesn't work so Video Plus will suffice, until Analogue is switched off.
 
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My interpretation of the Guide Plus + website advice was that someone could use either a Sky box to receive a digital signal on Eurosport, or a set top box tuned to BidTV to receive the EPG information. The digital signal would be converted to analogue and transmitted to the TV or to a recorder with an analogue tuner to populate the EPG, albeit with the freeview rather than analogue EPG. My Pioneer 530h has a setting to receive the signal from an external receiver. Recordings then made on the recorder would then pick up the program name, channel etc.(although I don't understand how the channels would match up). I assumed then that I would have revert to the normal connections to receive analogue signals directly, otherwise the set top box has to be programmed to match the recorder timings? From Phil's post above, the set top box approach doesn't work so Video Plus will suffice, until Analogue is switched off.

Well that is what I thought and what Philips told me. As for the analogue switch off, a lot of people are seeing no EPG information now !
 
Hi

It is all a bit complicated this GuidePlus+ business, mainly because GuidePlus+ themselves haven't exactly been open about it.

There are two types of GuidePlus+ EPGs, old and new if you like. The old ones only understand Teletext data that is transmitted in the top spare lines of the picture.

Now the old style GuidePlus+ works with Sky on Eurosport because as I understand it, the Sky boxes take the digital data and generate old style Teletext data and insert that into the picture, hence for the old style GuidePlus+ it just sees a picture with Teletext data just like it would from ITV analogue. This is part of the spec for Sky boxes to have the ability to generate normal Teletext signals within the box to play out to your TV.

Freeview doesn't have this requirement to support adding Teletext to the picture, as it uses MHEG for 'Red button' services, so there isn't a method for getting the Freeview data from the MUX sent over SCART to the recorder.

New devices with GuidePlus+ that work via Freeview will have an internal tuner and hardware/software that can read the raw data from the Freeview MUX.

So what about the list of models with Freeview tuners that don't work? Well these recorders with Freeview tuners are basically bog standard DVD Recorders with a separate Freeview tuner thrown in the box, with some basic data connections for operating and setting timers. There just isn't a data feed from the tuner to the main processing unit which runs the GuidePlus+ EPG software to transfer across the EPG data.

Hope that helps explain it.

Regards

Phil
 
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I was told by Pioneer that I could probably get the Guideplus+ using a Sky box, they did not give me any other options. The 530h does not come with Freeview built in so I was using an external Sony Freeview receiver. I don't know why Sky is different than Freeview..surely the signals cannot be transferred by Scart no matter what the source?

The issue is that the OLD guideplus system is an analogue system which was delivered by a choice of host channels: ITV1 or Eurosport via a satbox.

Now that ITV1 is ceasing support, Eurosport is the only option to get that Old EPG.

Guideplus now do a digital EPG delivered via freeview on the Bid TV channel.
[ Not to be confused with the Freeview digital Guide ]

A machine is only able to use Digital Guideplus if it has both a freeview tuner and the software necessary to extract and interpret the digital guide.

Therefore all existing machines which do not have Freeview tuners are incapable of using this guide.

There are also some machines of certain vintage which do have Freeview tuners which cannot deal with the digital Guidplus because they do not have the necessary software support and cannot be updated to provide it.

Your only option for Guideplus is Europsort as a host channel.

[Edit - Cross posted with Phil]
 
Thanks to Phil and Gav for the info
 
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I was given this information by Pioneer when I contacted their helpline but when I checked I found that Eurosport is a pay channel and I only have Freesat hence no download of Guide Plus. This morning however I find that the Guide Plus is back. Why? As well as my old Pioneer DVR-920H I have a cheapo DVB recorder from Asda as my Freeview tuner running into L3 on the poineer. Will this pick up the Guide Plus or am I going to have to go back to videoplus on the Pioneer and EPG on the Freeview box?
 
Just checked my GuidePlus and it has received some information as the EPG grid is now populated with a list of channels and program information.
 
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Just checked my GuidePlus and it has received some information as the EPG grid is now populated with a list of channels and program information.
Thanks for the info - just checked and our EPG is now populated. Maybe it was a warning of things to come!
 
Thanks for the info - just checked and our EPG is now populated. Maybe it was a warning of things to come!

My Pioneer EPG updated yesterday, I guessed something like this was afoot - such a shame as the pioneer has been great - it cost me £220 (refurbished) four years ago and I had to replace the DVD writer (£10 off ebay) around 18months ago.

Seems ridiculous to me that they won't keep the guide until switchover...

Edit; I forgot to say when the epg went the list of satellite boxes changed and I lost the 'Lorenzen' that matched my Silver Crest box - it mysteriously came back with the epg....
 
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